Psychology of Space Exploration
Thus, on 27 December 1973, the Skylab 4 astronauts conducted a daylong “sit-
down strike.” Cooper described the crew pejoratively as hostile, irritable, and down-
right grumpy, while other writers have described the “strike” as a legitimate reaction
to overwork.^35 William K. Douglas, a NASA flight surgeon, lamented both Cooper’s
emotionally toned reporting and people’s willingness to focus on others’ real or
imagined failures while overlooking greatness.^36 Whatever the “spin” on this partic-
ular event, the lessons are clear: the same rapid pace that can be sustained for brief
sprints cannot be sustained for marathons. Give astronauts the flexibility to sched-
ule their own activities, and allow time to look out the windows. NASA appears
to have taken the lesson to heart. In 2002, Space.com’s Todd Halvorson conducted
an interview with enthusiastic ISS astronaut Susan Helms. “It’s not that the crew
isn’t busy maintaining the station, testing the remote manipulator and conducting
science, it’s that there remains enough time to look out the window, do somersaults
in weightlessness, watch movies, and sit around chatting.”^37
Spaceflight also offers opportunities for psychological growth and develop-
ment.^38 Training for and working in space allows people to develop their abilities,
gain a strong sense of accomplishment, and feel worthwhile. There is unparal-
leled challenge, the opportunity to redefine one’s place in the cosmos. There is the
exhilarating feeling, as Harrison Schmitt wrote, of actually “being there.”^39 Walter
Cunningham wrote, “It has caused me to seek a challenge wherever I can find one,
to charge ahead and never look back... that feeling of omnipotence is worth all
that it takes to get there.”^40 Many of the two dozen or so astronauts and cosmo-
- M. M. Connors, A. A. Harrison, and F. R. Akins, Living Aloft: Human Requirements for
Extended Spaceflight (Washington, DC: NASA SP-483, 1985). - William K. Douglas, “Psychological and Sociological Aspects of Manned Spaceflight,” in
From Antarctica to Outer Space, ed. Harrison et al., pp. 81–88. - T. Halvorson, “ISS Astronaut Susan Helms: Space Is More Than a Nice Place to Visit,”
available at http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/iss_freetime_010615.html, 15 June
2001 (accessed 23 June 2010). - A. A. Harrison and J. E. Summit, “How Third Force Psychology Might View Humans in
Space,” Space Power 10 (1991): 85–203. - H. Schmidt, “The Millennium Project,” in Strategies for Mars: A Guide for Human
Exploration, ed. C. Stoker and C. Emmart (San Diego: American Astronautical Society/
Univelt, 1996), p. 37. - W. Cunningham, The All-American Boys (New York: Macmillan, 1977), p. 27.